1. Field of the Invention
The invention hereinafter described and claimed relates generally to bird deterrent devices, and specifically to the type of bird deterrent devices comprising a base for attachment to the perch location, and a series of spike elements protruding above the base.
2. Background
The desire to prevent birds from perching and roosting in areas inconvenient to humans probably dates back to the Dark Ages or before. The earliest bird deterrent devices were probably rocks hurled at the perched birds. In the last century, however, more modern and sophisticated devices have been developed, and have included everything from lifelike replicas of owls, snakes and other predators for the perching prey birds, to actual predators, to devices that repetitively issue a loud gunshot-like noise, among countless others.
Other type devices have been location-specific, and comprise those implements that are attached directly to the perch location and are intended to repel the birds from alighting. Amongst these devices, it has long been known to use devices comprising a base to be attached to the perch location, and a series of metal spikes extending above the base at different angles. One of the earlier U.S. patents granted for such a device was to J. S. Peles for an invention entitled xe2x80x9cBird Proofing,xe2x80x9d issued as U.S. Pat. No. 2,475,047 on Jul. 5, 1949. Since then, innumerable modifications on the basic design have been developed and patented.
This base-and-spike design has stood the test of time, and is still widely used today. The more recently patented improvements have not varied the basic design so much as they have been directed to improvements in the means by which the spikes are attached to the base element. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,552, a device is disclosed in which one end of the spikes (having a generally round cross section) has a protuberance formed by flattening the spike material, with the resultant protuberance being slightly larger than the cross section of the canal in the base to which it is inserted. Inserting the protuberance into the canal causes some deformation of the base material which provides the attachment means.
In another patent directed to this same basic base-and-spike design, European Patent No. 0,792,099, each of the spike elements is made of a resilient material, and are the two ends of a rod that is preformed into a U-shape having a pre-determined angle between the two ends. In order to insert the two ends through their respective canals in the base, the ends must be pulled together. Once fully inserted, the ends are released, and seek to return to their pre-formed angle of separation, but are prevented from doing so by the construction of the canals in the base. The spike ends are thus held within the base by the force exerted by the spike elements against the edge of the canals.
As will be noted, the ""099 patent only discloses the use of U-shaped, double spike elements. A particular attachment problem arises with the use of a single spike element. As shown in European Patent No. 0,792,099, when only double spike elements are employed, the resiliency of the spike material itself can be used as the attachment means. However, using all double spike elements may not be the most optimum design for various reasons. If a single spike element is employed in the design, then the resiliency of the spike material cannot be utilized in the manner disclosed in the ""099 patent, and some other attachment means must be used, such as the protuberance shown in the ""522 patent discussed above. That, however, adds to construction and assembly costs, and may loosen over time, particularly if there is not close tolerances on the canal and the protuberances.
As these and other patents directed to the basic base-and-spike design show, the illusive design goals are to have an overall device that is stable and cannot be easily dislodged, to have a means for attaching the spike elements to the base in which the spike elements are also stable, and allow single L-shaped spike elements to used, and lastly, to do so in a way in which the component and construction costs are as low as possible. An additional design goal is ease and universality of attachment, as the perch locations come in all places, shapes and sizes.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide such a device which accomplishes those illusive design goals.
The bird deterrent device herein disclosed and claimed comprises a base-and-spike type device that provides sufficient stability for the device with the minimum amount of component material by utilizing a base design characterized by alternating portions of extended wing segments and narrow neck portions of the base, in which the thickness of the base along its entirety is thin, and only that portion from which the metal spikes actually protrude is elevated so as to provide stability to the base-spike attachment, and channels formed in the underside of the base into which the spike elements are inserted, which channels have detents that are designed and constructed to hold either the double or single spike element snugly in place within the channel.
In addition, between each of the wing and neck segments, the base is scored. The overall thinness of the base portion and the intermediate scoring allows the device to be significantly bent, without breaking, so as to be useful with radically curved perch surfaces, and to be easily and cleanly broken by hand at the segment lines, thereby allowing the installer to easily fit the device to the exact length of the perch location.